Soul Meets Body
by kamiangel
Summary: Rose is trapped in parallel universe, in a mental institution because she keeps talking about a Time Lord who travels through time and space in a Police Box. Is she crazy like they say and if not where is the doctor and why hasn’t he saved her yet?


Prologue

_

* * *

_

I want to live where soul meets body

_And let the sun wrap its arms around me_

_And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing_

_And feel, feel what its like to be new_

* * *

"Tell me your name."

The doctor watched the girl in front of him. Her face remained motionless as she stared up at the sky.

He remembered when he had first met her five years before. He didn't know much about her other than that she was in a horribe accident and had only just woken up from a year long coma. He remembered seeing her for the first time, how her skin used to almost glow with beauty despite the scars on them, so much so that it would often cause those around her stare at her in awe. But now, she looked sickly and older than her twenty-three years.

She was far too thin but she refused to eat any solid foods. Her arms and legs was dotted with yellow and blue bruises from all the times she had to be restrained in her wild ravings.

"Do you know where you are?"

He saw her twitch slightly at his words. He made a note of that. It changed every day, some words made her react, made her look almost alive, not the lifeless doll now sitting in front of him.

He watched her for a moment longer.

She sat on the floor, her head resting against the window and eyes staring upwards, her body resting lazily against the wall. He wondered what it was that she was searching for, for she was certainly searching for something. Even now during the day, her eyes searched the sky.

He took a deep breath and tried again.

"Can you tell me how old you are?"

No response this time just the blank expression on that once beautiful face.

The doctor turned when he heard the door open behind him. The nurse had arrived, placing the tray of food on the table set up near the window.

He rubbed his face tiredly before standing up from his seat on the hard plastic chair.

"Not a good day today," he said to the two other nurses who entered the room.

He looked back at them as they lifted the girl from the floor and sat her down at the table. He wondered briefly if they would succeed in getting her to eat but knew that it would be unlikely.

"Morning doctor."

The doctor stopped in his tracks, he knew that voice. Shoving his hands in his coat he turned and looked at the woman walk towards him.

"How is she today?"

"Not much better I'm afraid," he sighed when he saw the smile disappear from the woman's face.

"Has she said anything though? I know half the stuff she does say doesn't make sense, but at least she's talkin'"

The doctor wondered at her logic for a moment.

"Not yet," he replied but added when he saw the heartbroken expression on the woman's face, "but the day has only just begun."

This seemed to cheer her up somewhat.

"Thank you doctor...Ben," she replied.

He smiled at her, not sure when she had started to call him by his first name, must have been around the third year. The woman returned his smile, if somewhat half-heartedly before heading inside the room.

"Mornin' Rose," he heard Mrs. Tyler say before she closed the door behind her.

He let his shoulders sag before he walked back to his office. He had joined the Torchwood Institute because he wanted to do some good. Torchwood was after where all the greatest minds in the world seemed to flock to, only natural when the wealthiest inventor in the world created a company for the sole purpose of research.

He had hoped to be recruited into one of the research departments or medical labs but instead the instant he arrived he was assigned the 'top secret' case.

Of course it had to be top secret. Couldn't let the word spread that the only child of the richest man in the world was insane, couldn't risk her being in a mental institution, she needed 24 hours care by the best trained and paid medical staff.

He resented the posting at first but slowly over the last five years he had become attached to the girl and her family, who visited almost daily. Now he felt like she was a younger sister that he had to take care of, still he didn't know what he could do to help her and he wondered why the Tyler's didn't just dump him out on his arse for all the good he did.

He reached his office and quickly shut the door behind him. He made his way through the mountains of paperwork before collapsing in the chair behind his desk. He leafed through the folders on his desk in despair.

He had worked on this case for so long now that he was starting to believe that there really was some alternate uiverse out there waiting for her.

"I'm starting to lose it," he sighed before walking over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup.

He sipped on the liquid for moment before a thought struck him.

"If we could only get her to talk more, even if it is about this other world she's so obsessed with, at least that would give us more to go on. But how?"

'_Ask her how we met.'_

Ben jumped and dropped the coffee in the process. He shook the hot liquid off his hands and looked around his office.

He had just heard a voice but he was completely alone.

He shook his head and picked the paper cup up from the floor before tossing it into a nearby bin.

"What was that?" he wondered aloud.

"So how do I get her to talk?" he said aloud again, waiting a moment to see if the voice spoke again.

When nothing happened he laughed at himself. He rubbed his face.

"I definitely need more sleep."

* * *

"Come one Rose, just one bite," Jackie urged her daughter.

Rose stared off into the distance, her eyes glazed over, Jackie hardened herself, she refused to cry, not with the nurses watching her, not when her only daughter was –

She sighed and scooped some of the cereal up to Rose's mouth.

"Just one mouthful…for me?"

"Doctor…" Rose whispered.

"Did you say something Rose? Do you need me to get Ben, I mean, the doctor?" Jackie was on her feet in an instant and ordered the nurses to call the doctor to come immediately.

Ben was there the next instant and he raced over to her.

"What is it? What's happened?"

"She said something," Jackie said unable to keep the hope out of her voice.

Rose barely said a word in the past few years but when she did it was usually hysterically screaming about everything being _wrong_ and needing to get back to her _world_.

"Rose?" Ben said slowly crouching down beside her.

"Rose," he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Tell me how you met?"

Jackie looked on in confusion.

'What was he talking about?' she wondered, 'Was he keeping information from them about Rose's developments?'

Jackie's anger instantly disappeared when she saw Rose turn her head to look at him.

"It all started with the word _'Run'_," Rose replied.

* * *

_Cause in my head there's a greyhound station_

_Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations_

_So they may have a chance of finding a place_

_where they're far more suited than here_

**

* * *

**

AN: Please comment on whether you would like me to continue. I already have two other stories in-progress and I may be risking being hunted down by my readers for not finishing those before starting another story, but honestly, my muse won't leave me alone, she insists I write this story :P

**Besides, I think I this will help me sort out how I feel post-Journey's End.**


End file.
